Wad stack safe?

[MIEagle]

Hi, I have an old Rem Roller military rifle sleeved to .38-56 Win. I'm loading 45-55 gr of 2F powder behind the Lyman .375248 249 gr boolit to get an accurate load. The 45 gr charge gets up into the neck, no compression. If I use 5 tablet backer wads, total thickness .01", in order to get the top band to just touch the rifling, one grease groove showing, will I have an unsafe load?
Or should I just use COW to take up the space between the powder wad and the base wad? Thanks.

[country gent]

You should be good there. where wads get you in trouble is when airspace is left in the cartridge between bullet and wads or powder and wads. .080 of cream of wheat isnt very much either. You might look for a cork or gasket material .100 thick to use 1 wad. 1/8" thick material would be .125 something to consider there.

[Hiwall55]

Try a Minute Maid Orange juice wad on the powder and a NAPA cork wad on top of the Minute Maid wad. The OJ was is .024 and the cork/rubber was is .060. This was setup has worked for me with my .38 rifles including the 38/56.

[martinibelgian]

Contrary to popular opinion the cheapest filler of all would also work - air. But I concur with country gent - don't put a wad on top of the powder, the wad belongs immediately under the bullet (touching the base). And if it touches the top of the powder, all the better. That little airspace won't hurt a thing.

[JSnover]

You're safe but compression is a good thing. You'll get a cleaner, more consistent burn if you compress the powder before you seat the boolit.

[martinibelgian]

Compression can be good - but usually doesn't work well with BN rounds - and it depends on the powder used.